Legislation introduced a second year in a row in Louisiana would make it more difficult to sue nursing home operators and limit the amount of money residents and their families could receive from lawsuits involving injuries, neglect and wrongful deaths.

Republican Sens. Thomas Pressly and Alan Seabaugh re-introduced the bill in response to an increase of lawsuits in the past two years brought against nursing homes in the state; nursing home owners involved are “prolific donors” in the state, according to a report from the Louisiana Illuminator.

Resident advocates including AARP Louisiana said the legislation would ultimately prevent improvements to nursing homes in the state, already poorly-rated compared to other states.

“What this means is, if your loved one is in a nursing home and is injured due to abuse or neglect, you and your family might be paying for their injuries instead of being able to properly seek legal restitution,” Andrew Muhl, state advocacy director for AARP Louisiana, told the Illuminator.

Last year’s version of the legislation became known as the ‘Bob Dean Protection Act,’ named after a nursing home owner who during Hurricane Ida in 2021 moved about 840 residents from his nursing homes to an ill-equipped pesticide warehouse without adequate food, toilets, bedding and showers.

Residents affected by the traumatic move joined a class-action lawsuit to get financial damages from Dean. The proposed legislation would make such court actions impossible, Garcia & Artigliere attorney Matthew Coman told the Illuminator.

Pressly said case limits wouldn’t have applied to the Dean case given its “intentional” and “criminal” details.

Currently, such lawsuits are circumventing the state’s medical malpractice restrictions, Pressly said.

Louisiana’s award cap for lawsuits against a health care provider is $500,000, with $100,000 coming from the provider and $400,000 coming from the state. Law firms have been suing the nursing home management companies as well as the nursing homes themselves, winning multimillion dollar verdicts for residents and their families.

The lawmakers believe continued lawsuits with big winnings would lead to closures in the state. “It will bankrupt every nursing home in the state,” Seabaugh added.

Pressly argued that the management companies currently aren’t direct health care providers and aren’t covered by the medical malpractice cap. The bill would better define the distinction, adding management companies to be covered under the malpractice limits.